Ducks & Foie Gras. Birds. Swans. Getting Lead Out. Shopping

"Hudson Valley Foie Gras raises and slaughters ducks to produce the controversial French "delicacy" foie gras.
Birds are force-fed an unnatural amount of food through a pipe thrust down their throats until their livers expand to ten or more times their natural size.
This process not only results in extreme suffering for the birds, it also produces a significant amount of waste, including manure and slaughter waste. The case alleges that some of this waste has been discharged into the Middle Mongaup River.

A federal court in Manhattan has ruled in favor of The Humane Society of the United States in its federal lawsuit charging the nation's largest foie gras factory farm with numerous violations of the federal Clean Water Act. Judge Harold Baer, Jr. granted in part HSUS' motion for summary judgment, and issued extensive injunctive relief against Hudson Valley Foie Gras."
From: http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/05/HVFG_050610.html
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Kate Winslet Exposes Foie Gras Cruelty

Kate Winslet narrates this shocking undercover footage of the torture that ducks and geese endure in foie gras production. Learn More >>
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Lewis's Woodpecker


"The Lewis’s Woodpecker, notable for its flycatching habits and dark green and pink coloring, is a bird of open ponderosa pine forests and burned areas. It is somewhat nomadic, and may range widely in search of appropriate nesting and feeding areas.
Surveys indicate that Lewis’s populations may have declined by about 60% since the 1960s, likely due to loss or alteration of suitable nesting habitat.  Although overall population sizes are still high, this precipitous decline signals an urgent need for species-specific conservation actions.
ABC has worked to conserve the Lewis’s Woodpecker by purchasing land in Klickitat County, Washington in cooperation with The Columbia Land Trust to provide high-quality habitat for the species.  ABC has also started a program aimed at educating landowners on conserving habitat for cavity-nesting birds, including Lewis’s Woodpecker, in ponderosa pine forests throughout the West."
To learn more and help ABC's efforts to save the Lewis's Woodpecker, click here
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The House of Representatives eliminated funding for several key wildlife programs

Prairie Warbler. Photo: Bill Hubick
(Washington, D.C., February 25, 2011) "The House of Representatives eliminated funding for several key wildlife programs and drastically curtailed funding of others as part of a Fiscal Year 2011 funding bill (H.R.1) that passed the House late last week.
“This spending bill contains some of the most anti-wildlife proposals I have ever seen. These destructive funding cuts and policy provisions will certainly harm birds and wildlife as well as undoing conservation efforts that have taken over 50 years to accomplish,” says Darin Schroeder, Vice President for Conservation Advocacy at American Bird Conservancy, the nation’s leading bird conservation organization.

Birds have been a driving force behind the American conservation movement since its early day when unregulated hunting, the use of toxic pesticides, and the destruction of wetlands threatened our wildlife and wild places. But birds are also big business. A report by The Outdoor Industry Foundation found all outdoor wildlife related recreation activities generate $730 billion annually for the U.S. economy.
The report estimated that bird watching and other wildlife viewing contributes $43 billion annually to the economy. An estimated 66 million Americans participate in wildlife viewing, which supports 466,000 jobs. Retail sales of gear average $8.8 billion, trip related expenditures total $8.5 billion, and state and federal tax receipts amount to $2.7 billion."
More at: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/110225.html
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Trumpeter Swans Dying from Lead Poisoning in Northwest U.S. and Canada

Trumpeter Swan. By: Alan Wilson
(February 17, 2011) " One of North America’s most iconic birds, the Trumpeter Swan, is dying in unusually high numbers from lead poisoning in the Northwest U.S. and in Southwest Canada according to the Northwest Raptor and Wildlife Center (NRWC) and the Canadian Wildlife Service in Delta, Vancouver.
"We have personally treated at least six cases of fatal lead poisoning in Olympic Peninsula trumpeter swans just this winter, which is likely only a fraction of the number of poisoning cases in the wild," said Matthew Randazzo of the NRWC, a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation organization located in Sequim, Washington on the Olympic Peninsula.
"All of these swans were shown to have ingested lead ammunition, which is poisonous across a wide range of species. If these swans had died in the wild, it's likely that their carcasses would have been consumed by scavengers such as bald eagles, who then could have been poisoned as well,” he said in a recent interview with the Seattle Post Intelligencer newspaper."  More at:  http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/stories/110217.html
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Federal Agency Bans Lead Ammunition for Depredation Hunting of Birds


Common Grackle. Photo: ClipArt.com
(Washington, D.C. February 10, 2011)   "Citing the need to prevent lead toxicity hazards to wildlife, the Federal Government’s primary wildlife management agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has banned the use of lead ammunition for control of blackbirds, magpies, grackles, crows and cowbirds.  Non-toxic ammunition is already required for control of various other nuisance birds (for over 20 years in some cases) such as Canada Geese, cormorants and Purple Gallinules.
“This decision is important not only because it will keep a highly toxic substance from being strewn across the landscape, but it will also prevent birds or other wildlife that might scavenge the remains of lead-shot nuisance birds, such as Bald Eagles, bobcats and raccoons from becoming innocent mortality victims as well,” Fry added.”

“The paint industry got the lead out, the gasoline industry got the lead out, the toy industry got the lead out, the home building industry got the lead out of plumbing, and even the automotive industry most recently is getting the lead out of the wheel weights on cars. The lethal impacts of lead in our environment are so well documented and accepted by the science and health community that any deliberate release of lead into a public environment should be viewed as unacceptable. The Federal Government has shown concern for human impacts of lead – we are very glad they are showing the same level of concern for wildlife,” Fry said."    More at: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/110210.html

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Today:

Jay and I went on our Wednesday shopping excursion to the next town.  Jay picked up some bargains at the thrift shops.  My two purchases were some new shorts, a sort of burnt orange color, and a set of teeny-weeny jeweler's Phillips screwdrivers. I have a set of straight slot, but it seems that usually one needs Phillips. I have a calculator I want to tear into, now that I have them.
On to Home Depot to get one more sheet of the smooth ceiling plywood for the cargo trailer, as my van can only carry one 4' x 8' sheet at a time.

I had to rush back as the orphan kittens were probably wanting their bottle.  I had left them a saucer of kitten replacement milk with a tad of canned kitten food mixed in it, but the little scrawny one, "Precious" won't eat from a bowl yet.

They better get themselves all spiffied up, as a lady from the SPCA is coming to take their pictures today.